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i called up the dealership today and told me that they did a pressure test and my blitz radiator cap wasn't the reason for my radiator to leak. tomorrow, they are going to make sure my headgasket didnt blow up. how do you know if a headgasket is blown?? my car was running fine before dropping it off to the dealership.

Hydrocarbons in the cooling system, and/or through the tail pipe. Sometimes you can smell it. Coolant temperature rises above normal, but that can be other factors such as a leaking radiator.

Internal leaks include milky condition of the oil sump from coolant leaking. Happens you your car turns off. There is no pressure on some of the cylinders but the pressure in the cooling system is still intact after shut off, so if the headgaskets leak, coolant will slowly seep into the low pressure area of the cylinder and in between the piston down to the sump. Viscousity of the oil is reduced over time.

Headgaskets can also leak from the oil passages to the cooling system (vice versa) and that can affect the cooling performance of the coolant or down to the combustion cylinder and burn oil.

i'm running catless and when i start the car up in the morning, (ofcourse) there is white smoke but in the midday/afternoon(weather is warm) there is no presence of white smoke.. thanks for the input pak

A higher pressure cap won't make a radiator leak unless ther's already something wrong with the radiator. In the case of most manufacturers, you've got a serious design deficiency to deal with in interest of shaving cost - plastic tanks. The plastic to aluminum joint is subject to failure.

It nice that the dealer didn't use the cap as a way out. I would think that a hose would fail much sooner than the radiator because of higher pressure. If you think the head gasket is leaking, take the cap offand start the car. When the coolant starts to flow to the radiator there will be bubbles and foaming if there is a leak.

I have been looking for info on caps. cant seem to find it on here... So there is no advantage to an aftermarket cap? just wondering because i am about to install a new radiator and thermostat and i wanted to know if a cap is something that i should get or not. i dont car about bling just function. Thanks

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mulder

Yes, if it is a higher pressure cap than the stock one. This is not a good mod. If you want the visual "bling" put a sticker on your existing cap.

The two key features of a radiator cap are (a) that it fits properly on the radiator, making a good seal but still allowing overflow in/out and (b) the pressure at which it starts allowing overflow.
If you have an OEM radiator, the OEM cap will likely be the best fit for it.
Changing the pressure rating on the radiator cap means that *the whole cooling system* will now be running under a different max pressure. There is no real advantage to this *if your engine/cooling system were not designed for this*. On the downside, lots of things besides the radiator can spring a leak if subjected to higher-than-designed pressure, and many of them are much more expensive to fix than replacing a radiator.
So, unless you have substantially modified your *engine* and know what cooling system characteristics you want to change and why (higher cooling system pressure is not "better" like higher HP is), don't mess with a different pressure limit on the radiator cap.